Books, Life, Earth

I Believe in… Controversial Books

A while ago I came across a comment that essentially said the person didn’t want to discuss a book because it was controversial. It made me take a second glance and think… why?From a young age my parents have encouraged me to read pretty much whatever I wanted. We had banned books on display at the libraries and read them in classes and discussed why people wanted to change words in Huck Finn. I have always been encouraged to read books outside of my realm of knowledge, to read books about topics that were new ideas at the time of being written.

With all of these doors open to me I read a little bit of everything, some things went over my head, and I read them at a later date, some influenced my reading years down the line. The idea is just to be exposed to all of these things throughout your life from a young age.

I think if we encourage this we can solve so many world issues just by being more aware that everyone is so similar and faces challenges. Humans actually haven’t changed that much.

If you don’t talk about the things you read, or don’t read things people talk about, how will you ever broaden your horizons? Books and the news should be used as a discussion. Obviously there is a time and place for these things, for example: not at job interviews, or websites with all the trolls. Pick when and where you talk about these things. I have some go to people in my life for this.

I know some people have problems with the portrayal of subjects but those still need to be talked about, in order for people to understand why they should not talk about things that way, why they are offensive. Don’t just start scolding people, take time to explain so these problems can be better portrayed in the future.